(Belated) Day 7 of Halloween - The Perfect Host

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Jason: This movie is a departure from the movies we’ve seen so far in that there is absolutely nothing supernatural going on. No monsters, no ghosts, no aliens, nothing. That being said, it is pretty stinkin scary! And not in the loud noise, flash of light and movement scary either. This is scary in just how plausible it is! The whole thing takes place in this one dude’s house and the whole time, he is literally torturing his “guest”. Upon second viewing, I realized that from the very moment John walks in, Warwick is leading him down a dark path. It is clear at the end that Warwick is aware that he is absolutely batpoop crazy and that he is actively trying to keep his home life and his outside life separated. It’s when the two start to intersect that everything starts falling apart for him.
The real creepy factor of this movie is in the fact that there are people out there with mental illnesses that could lead them to do these kinds of things to other people. And David Hyde Pierce plays his part with such sincerity and genuineness that it is hard to believe that he isn’t actually like that in real life! I left this movie with an uneasy feeling about my own world. Are these people around me living this sort of double life? It’s a seriously creepy and disturbing thought.

Joel: So when I originally saw the poster for this one, it looked like a knockoff idea for Silence of the Lambs. An elegant, yet creepy sociopath, who is the pinnacle of society other than the fact that he enjoys murder (or torture, or sadistic games, or any other insert your horror movie pleasure here) So it caught me a little off guard to find out that it’s not a slightly creepy character but a totally deranged character. Like the others have said, I don’t want to delve too much into this movie, because I really can’t without revealing information that is best doled out over the course of 90 minutes. I will say there are some parts near the beginning where there are some pretty far fetched character decisions that are kind of hard to swallow, but if you can get past those, once we finally start to get to the dinner party aspect of the story, it gets interesting.

Chris: Ugh, I seriously hate saying this but Jason knocked it out of the park with the ridiculous and far-fetched movie. I was thoroughly entertained by this and it might beat out Grabbers as my favorite of what we’ve seen so far. It’s like 3 tonally different short films cut together that somehow fit very well together. The first act set it up like it’s a movie about a guy trying to lay low when he gets identified in a bank robbery and cons his way into a well-meaning man’s home. The second act takes such an abrupt turn that seems impossible and feels more like a psycho thriller with a few comedic elements. And finally, (the next morning) the movie shifts into a crime drama with deception, corruption and brings up further unexpected results. There’s only so much I can say without spoiling anything and if you’re reading this and haven’t watched The Perfect Host, stop what you’re doing and do yourself a favor by watching it now. There’s no internal debate on this one, Jason gets a win. 2-4-1

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